Medical Equipment - 4D Cardiac Scanner

Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity funded the UK's first state-of-the-art 4D cardiac scanner at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

A heart condition is the most common problem a baby can be born with, affecting nearly 1 in every 100 babies born in Scotland.

Every year, thousands of babies, children and young people living with heart conditions are treated and cared for at the Royal Hospital for Children, which is the national provider of paediatric cardiology services in Scotland.

In November 2015 we launched our Little Hearts Appeal, which raised £150,000 to purchase a state-of-the-art 4D cardiac scanner. The scanner will help medical staff diagnose and treat heart conditions in thousands of children each year, and is the first of its kind in the UK. When a baby’s heart can be as tiny as 2cm, clear and accurate scans are vital to ensure a timely diagnosis and successful treatment.

Little James Baillie from Fife was diagnosed with a heart condition at just 12 hours old, and is one of the many children from across Scotland who will benefit from the new cardiac scanner.

James was born with a large hole in his heart and the condition Pulmonary Atresia with AVSD, meaning that his pulmonary arteries were not attached to his heart correctly. He has undergone three open heart surgeries to repair the abnormalities with his heart, and has spent much of his young life at the Royal Hospital for Children.

“James has had countless scans at the hospital. It can’t be underestimated how important it is for the surgical team to have as much information about the child’s heart as possible and to know exactly what they are facing.” Jenny, James’s mum

Children like James will often require multiple surgeries throughout their lives. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, staff at the hospital now have access to the state-of-the-art scanning equipment they need to capture detailed images of even the tiniest of hearts.